Wow a very interesting thread. I guess ill be doing my TB at 120k miles or so may be up to 130k. that's if i haven't traded my car in for another one by then in which i highly doubd. Gotta love these Honda/Acura cars, they do run forever lol.

 

That's very true, the broken TB's I've seen all looked good except for where they snapped. No delamination, fraying, cracking,...

 

All very good points. My auto tensioner was leaking and the bearing grease from the tb idler pulley was everywhere. The tb looks decent to the naked eye, but closer up, time and stress has taken it's toll. I changed mine right about 105k. It's like playing russian roulette when waiting to do the service.

 

Hes right, it'll probably be cheaper to actually replace the motor itself.

 

I think mine is at about 106,600 and hasn't popped up yet. Oil change percentage is at 70%, so I imagine it will pop up within the next thousand miles or two.
I'm either going with my Indy mechanic or a local Honda place. No doubt I could do it, but just don't want to be responsible for this one......

 

Are you sure it was not hydraulic fluid from the tensioner/damper? There were problems with the seal on them causing them to leak the fluid. I've never seen any grease get past the seals on the tensioner bearings (I think they are NTN brand, very good Japanese bearing company)

 

you tell me.

Here's the auto tensioner and idler pulley together.



Here's a shot of the grease that pushed out of the idler pulley, below the water pump.

 

Agree that is bearing grease as well as the tensioner damper fluid.

 

I was astonished. There was no symptoms either.

 

Both my tensioner and idler bearings had just a bit of play. It was probably not noticeable if you didn't have brand new ones to compare against. They certainly were not worn out at 107K, but at 210K, then who knows. Of course, a lot of people will likely be back in there before 210K if they did not change the seals, so they can do the bearings and tensioner then.

My reminder came on at 107K.

It is an easy job. Took me 3.5 hours on the first car with valves. 2.25 hours on the second car, but I skipped the valves. I did the cam and front main seals on both. If you have an air wrench, you can get the hard-to-reach bolts off of the timing cover very easily. Using the starter to break loose the crank bolt and save a lot of time too.

 

Did you have a special attachment or just a straight socket on the air wrench? Were you able to get to every timing cover bolt with the air wrench (all 15 bolts, IIRC)?

 

=/ im guessing there's no DIY for this timing belt replacement huh lol

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/122-diy-105k-service-timing-belt-water-pump-spark-plugs-thermostat-%2Apics%2A-784622/

 

Seems like there was more than 15, but I dunno - 7 on the bottom and 5 for each head? I have a slim 3/8" drive air wrench from Snap On. I used a deep well for most of them, and standard 10mm for the rest (especially the ones in the back). I think that I had to use a 1/4" drive standard 10MM for one of the ones in the back. On the back ones, was easier for me to put my arm between that tube thing and the firewall and work it from behind.

 

When I bought my TL last week, when I was driving it around to see how I liked it. The owner was explaining to me he did the normal services and everything is up to date and mentioned something about the timing belt. I just snickered and said the timing belt shouldnt need to be replaced at 56k miles.. It's good to know these timing belts on these Acuras can last up to 200k miles!!

 

Personally I won't push any J-series motor TB past 120K. I let my wife's Pilot got to ~110K miles. 200K to me is asking for trouble.

 

Does any one knows when was the least time a TB has broken before?

 

A colleague had a belt break at 66K miles on his 1G Integra. At the time there was no replacement interval indication in the shop manual for time/mileage but almost all Acura dealers said 5 year/60K miles. It bent the valves which he had replaced the pistons survived.

My theories on this were the 1G Integra was one of Honda's first DOHC and there was more stress/wear on the belt due to more friction of two cams so the belt really were not up much beyond the 60K miles. I replaced my wife's Integra's belts at 60K miles but later on I was talking to a Acura service manager and he said the newer belts they replaced at 75K miles so i went to that interval.

 

Excellent writeup

 

he got lucky there!! i wounder if the dealer set the timing again? highly doubt it!! but for sure he got lucky there because your just asking for double when you dont change the TB!